Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

[BiBiologist]

Today I was struggling to feed Jeffrey. He won't eat what he ate when he was a baby, and his transitions have given me some fits and taken up a lot of my time. Jeffrey doesn't even resemble himself anymore. I don't even recognize him as the same little critter that he was a couple months ago when he was eating mush. Now I've got to go out in the garden and dig in the soil to scrape up his meals. Yes, Jeffrey is a leopard frog. As a tadpole he was easy. Just drop a little tadpole cookie in the water and he was happy. My son "won" him from a school drawing, because the school year was coming to a close and the tadpoles had to go. So he came home in a deli container and wiggled and jiggled to my children's delight, but my son demanded he have a better home. So there was a $25 aquarium purchase. Kinda cool, really, with its own light and filter, and of course we had to put some ornaments and gravel in it. OK, so 30 bucks. We feared at first that Jeffrey was some kind of mutant, and wouldn't grow up normal, but then his legs started to grow.
"Isn't he going to get arms? Where are his arms?" my son asked between school days and weekend birthday parties. He's eight.
One morning, my ten-year-old daughter came running into our bedroom yelling, "Jeffrey grew arms overnight!"
Of course. Overnight. Where are my slippers? Well faith and whatever, there were the arms. Not long after, he started to reabsorb his tail, and I had to think how to make the aquarium into a terrarium. My son whimpered when we couldn't find him right away in his tank. It's OK, there he is. The rocks I put in are his sanctuary. Mom prevails.
Little boys in early June, if the temperature is over 70, are out killing each other with squirt guns. And I'm rinsing earthworms in the kitchen sink, cutting off their squiggly ends, and feeding them, impaled on a broom bristle to a lunging froglet.
When Jeffrey changed, we were all mesmerized. I thought of how my life changed when my kids were babies, then toddlers, how unrecognizable they kept becoming, and how important it was for them to keep changing. And how my life is changing now, and how my parents, in their seventies, still have to adapt to my changes. Life. Wow.

[JohnnyV]

Sam,

Your story is so sweet. It is amazing how much things change. I feel very touched by it.

Love,
J

[CountryLover]

What a timely topic honey. Thank you.

I just got off the phone with one of my best friends. He's dealing with caring for his elderly mother also, so we trade Mom stories, ideas, suggestions and support.

You want change? Diversity? ADversity?

Two years ago, my household included my 84 yr old mom, me, my 23yr old daughter, her 25yr old husband, my two grandbabies (6&3), and my 11 yr old son. In one house.
Thank God for multiple bathrooms. Thank God for friends that let me and my son visit on the weekend.

I've watched my mom go downhill sharply in the past 2 years. She broke her arm badly Aug 2004, had a bout of cancer last summer and hasn't quite bounced back from either. The start of confusion, missteps in memory, forgetfulness of things that used to be clear....it's been a heartache to watch.

My friend called to unload about his mom, who is still insisting on living alone and driving :eek: How to care for her living an hour away through the Rocky Mtns, how to handle privacy and dignity issues....

On the bright side, it's been such a joy watching my 13 yr old son blossom into a fine young man. Saturday evening we had a heart to heart about the fact that my sweetie and I are falling in love, his dad (my ex) is falling in love with a nice woman, and his best friend's mom (who is lesbian) is falling in love with another woman we all like. "It's going to be an interesting summer, Mom! This is too cool!"

I'm afraid we haven't had much time for tadpoles of the frog variety - but we're sure going through the changes of the human kind!

[woolleygirl]

When Jeffrey changed, we were all mesmerized. I thought of how my life changed when my kids were babies, then toddlers, how unrecognizable they kept becoming, and how important it was for them to keep changing. And how my life is changing now, and how my parents, in their seventies, still have to adapt to my changes. Life. Wow.[/QUOTE]


I agree I see changes everyday I think sometimes that we take for granted what we have until we step back. I love your story about your children it is one I can relate to with 3 boys discovering the world and seeing it through their eyes.

Theresa

[Mrs.F]

I understand the change in your life thing very well. My life has been totally flipped upside down. It all started when I gave birth to my son..my life changed and I became someone responsible for another human life. Life wasn't all about me anymore. But just when I didn't think life would change much more..I found out my husband is bi. Another change that I had to adapt too. And even though it was a shocker, I have learned from it and discovered there is nothing wrong with that. And always...when I get down and depressed, I can look at my son and see how innocent he is and no matter what..he can bring a smile to my face and make me realize that life really isn't all that bad. I'm a very lucky person and I have been blessed in many ways! :bigrin:

[onewhocares]

Change is GOOD. Change makes you grow. Change makes you face reality. Change is knowing when say good bye and when to welcome. Change can sometimes clarify the descisions in your life. Change can make you grow up. Change can mean acceptence. Change can be mind opening. Change can bring a new someone into your life. Change can take a loved one away. Change can mean you have finally come into your own person and accept the skin you are in. Change can mean letting the one you love take wings and fly. Change can mean you love him enough to let him return to the nest of love. Change can mean opening your heart to another special man. Change can mean watching him share his life with another. Change is knowing that is the right thing. Change is knowing when to leave. Change is being a comfort to a friend. Change is GOOD.

Belle

[NightHawk]

Life is a process of constant change. I watched a younger brother and four younger sisters grow up, when we first moved every 2 - 3 years up and down the Gulf and Atlantic coasts and then settled in the Bible Belt in 1963. I watched and helped my wife become a hospital microbiologist, then get a Masters in Biology, and then go to pharmacy school while daughters 2 and 3 were born. They grew up in a flash.

My oldest from cholicy baby, precocious pre-schooler always playing school, digging the roots of a diseased tree out of the yard with me in a heavy downpour and refusing to quit, helping me in the early years of my lab, graduating with honors in engineering, and now making a ton with a consulting firm while traveling all over the world. My peaceful middle daughter at 2 climbing on my chest under the bathtub while I searched for a leak and getting me the screwdriver and pliers I needed when asked for them. When I painted the top of the 2nd story and the ladder shook, I found her 8 feet off the ground at two and a half and 12 feet above by the time I could scramble down to get her. She would wander far from home exploring the neighborhood and concerned neighbors would ask where she lived and she would say, "Don't worry, my Daddy will come and get me." Then school and she hated it, then depression and some recovery, and now she lives at home and just celebrated her 21st birthday. My youngest, always singing, eager to go to school, trying to moderate the disagreements of her older sisters, breezing along in school, the leader of her group of girlfriends, but too shy to talk to the boys, taking 8 AP courses and passing 8 with 4s and 5s, the Honors Program at a technical college, a 4.0 first year, a very close boyfriend and a dozen guy friends, driving many hundreds of miles to college, and now helping me in my laboratory for the summer.

Not to mention the unending new thoughts and new understandings in my own mind! Life is mindboggling and all the more wonderful for it! The excitement never ends. And, of course, encountering wise and interesting people like Sam is a part of the wonder.

[BiBiologist]

Thanks everyone for your lovely responses. All excellent! Today was a change from the school grind to summer vacation, so I won't get to spend as much time on the forum while the kids are around. But yes, change is good, and I hope all your changes are for the better!
sam

[canuckotter]

Eek! This thread is scaring me! :eek: The baby's on its way, that's going to be enough change, I don't know if I can deal with all that other change too! Ack! Oh well, I'm sure I'll survive somehow... :tong:

[woolleygirl]

canuckotter you will enjoy this change just ask JonnyV he will tell you that kind of change really is wonderful but overwhelming. Everyone is right change is ineviable(opps spelling sucks i know) we just go will the flow and enjoy each new aspect that it brings.
Good luck canuckotter ;)

T